2018 Nest Box and mist nesting survey
We had great success with our tit boxes this year, I would like to thank all the members that turned up in the mini beast from the east to maintain our boxes and Sid Batty of the BTO who rings all the birds. Unfortunately Jackdaws have taken over both our owl and kestrel boxes at Rockland and for the second year we had no raptors to ring. Our boxes at Langley fared much better, one very large barn owl chick who had eaten his siblings was rung in the box by the river wall. The other owl box had been taken over by Kestrels we rung four chicks in that box then in propper Kestrel box less than 100 yards away we rung another three chicks a great result.
Chick totals from our nest boxes 129 birds rung !
Jackdaw 6
Marsh Tit 9
Great Tit 17
Blue Tit 89
Kestrel 7
Barn Owl 1
The highlight of the year was the 9 Marsh tits we rung, to put this in perspective Sid has been ringing birds for decades and this was only the second brood of Marsh Tits he has ever rung.
We also rung adult Blue Tits and Great Tits we caught in the boxes plus Willow Warblers and Black Caps we caught in mist nets. On surveying our wood at Rockland Sid counted nine singing male Willow Warblers which is testament to our ongoing management of the wood.
Unfortunately we have just found one of the barn owls that we have rung a few years back who had an encounter with another raptor and ended up as a few feathers and two legs. It has been reported back to the BTO with its ring details.